At the Frankfurt IAA motor show yesterday, two major themes emerged from my conversations with tire makers: New European legislation on TPMS is pushing tire makers to develop super-charged All-Season tires for European markets Global legislation on fuel economy means car makers are setting extreme targets for tire rolling resistance EU market moving toward All-Season
This week, I want to alert you to something from under the radar: there are big changes going on in the retread sector around the world. It’s hard to get numbers on this, but I’m increasingly getting involved in conversations about the impact of imports of low-priced truck tires from China on the global retread
Downward. Natural rubber (NR) is in mid- to long-term structural over-capacity right now, and the situation is made worse by the short- to mid-term turmoil in China’s tire industry. I’m not saying anything new here. The trade has been awash with speculation about how far down the price of rubber can go for the last
A perfect storm of negative conditions is driving huge changes in China’s tire industry, causing a meltdown in profitability and output among Chinese tire makers. Desperate Chinese tire makers are driving sharp price falls in almost every tire market and simultaneously forcing down prices of raw materials, notably natural and synthetic rubber. In dollar terms,
As many of you know, I’ve been talking to many people in the global tire industry but last week at the excellent Latin American Tire show in Panama, organized by Gustavo Lima and his team, I had a bit of a revelation. I’d like to share it with you. We all know there are hundreds
In the previous article, I addressed how the international tire makers’ profitability in China might be threatened by greater availability of consumer data on tires. This article looks at the situation of China’s tire makers and how that might change in the coming decade or so. Falling prices China’s tire industry is probably the most
I’ve spent a lot of time talking to people in China these last couple of months, and the mood is not happy. First, they are dealing with a downturn in the domestic truck market; second there is the issue of widespread tariffs against Chinese-made tires and third the question of land prices. The prospect of
In April, the world’s tire modelling community met in Guildford, UK*. As the first such meeting for around 11 years, it was long over-due. And in fact everyone who knows about computer modelling of tires was there. That includes the university professors and researchers who think up models for how friction is generated, or why rubber
Research from Google dated September 2013 suggests that more people are using the web to research and make tire purchases. Time spent on research is up; average spend is up; and brand influence is up. The top reason for buying — according to the Google research — is durability followed by price. The biggest statistic
Darren Wells took over from Arthur de Bok as head of Goodyear’s EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) operations toward the end of last year. Since then some big decisions have been taken. The Amiens dispute has been resolved; a racing tire plant in the UK is to close and Goodyear Corporate has announced plans
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